Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or being the epoch of geologic time from about 55 to 34 million years ago, the second epoch of the Tertiary Period. It is characterized by warm climates, the rise of most modern mammalian families, and the formation of the Himalayas.
  • noun The Eocene Epoch.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Literally, of the dawn of the recent: applied in geology to one of the divisions of the Tertiary, as originally suggested by Lyell.
  • In paleontology, having existed in this geological period: said of animals whose remains occur in the Eocene.
  • noun In geology, a division of the Tertiary. See Tertiary.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Geol.) Pertaining to the first in time of the three subdivisions into which the Tertiary formation is divided by geologists, and alluding to the approximation in its life to that of the present era.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective geology of a geologic epoch within the Paleogene period from about 56 to 34 million years ago.
  • noun geology the Eocene epoch

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun from 58 million to 40 million years ago; presence of modern mammals

Etymologies

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Examples

  • And finally, the highest horizon is called Eocene and is 1500 meters below the bottom of the sea.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

  • And finally, the highest horizon is called Eocene and is 1500 meters below the bottom of the sea.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

  • One of the major implications of this reassignment is that, because Papuacedrus is known from tropical montane habitats and is physiologically limited to extremely wet climates, it adds to the emerging evidence that Patagonia in the Eocene was a warm, wet tropical place and not a cold, dry steppe as much of it is today.

    R&D Mag - News 2009

  • Prof. CLARKE: Well, it's quite possible that the, you know, there was quite a diversity of penguins in the Eocene, you know, early on in penguin evolution.

    New Species Of Extinct Giant Penguin Discovered 2010

  • Prof. CLARKE: Well, I've thought about this: You know, what would it be like to be on an Eocene beach and see one of these guys come ashore?

    New Species Of Extinct Giant Penguin Discovered 2010

  • Yesterday, I finished reading "Eotheroides lambondrano, new middle Eocene seacow (Mammalia, Sirenia) from the Mahajanga Basin, northwestern Madagascar."

    Howard Hughes Just Feels Safer Inside readingthedark 2010

  • Yesterday, I finished reading "Eotheroides lambondrano, new middle Eocene seacow (Mammalia, Sirenia) from the Mahajanga Basin, northwestern Madagascar."

    Howard Hughes Just Feels Safer Inside readingthedark 2010

  • Prof. CLARKE: Well, I've thought about this: You know, what would it be like to be on an Eocene beach and see one of these guys come ashore?

    New Species Of Extinct Giant Penguin Discovered 2010

  • Hans Thewissen of the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy recovered the skeleton in rocks from Kashmir, a disputed region between India and Pakistan, where the deer-like herbivore lived during the Eocene epoch, 56 to 34 million years ago.

    Science Is Nifty cortigiana 2009

  • Eocene uses the Greek root for dawn, heralding the birth of modern mammals, and the root of holocene means wholly recent, referring to the epoch we've been in for the past 10,000 years.

    Five words shaping our future Steven E. Levingston 2010

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